The three parts of James Gunn's fix-up novel The Joy Makers (1961) were originally published in magazine form in 1955 as 'Name Your Pleasure,' 'The Naked Sky', and 'The Unhappy Man.' I have not read the originals so I'm unsure of how much was added or subtracted or completely re-conceptualized. Largely a satire -- Gunn pushes his point to the logical, and terrifying extreme -- each part is a further chronological progression of a society whose chief aim is to make people happy. It is hard not to read Part I as a satirical take on some aspects of Scientology, a movement that was gaining force in the early 1950s.
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Sadly, I was planning my review entirely around certain quotations from the book. Unfortunately I have turned the book in and can no longer follow my plan. And woe is me–the drop-down menu with the bookshelf selection won't go away so I can't see what I am typing, as that box occludes much of the review-entry box. Anyway, I will simply write this one quotation to sum up what would have been my review:
“Happiness is death.”
